In an Instagram video he posted today, longtime Trump consigliere Roger Stone said that a Ronan Farrow story soon to be published in The New Yorker reports that Stone explicitly told Donald Trump in October 2016 that WikiLeaks had obtained and was preparing to dump John Podesta's emails. Read the rest

Special Counsel Robert Mueller today brings new charges against Trump's former campaign chair Paul Manafort. Also named in the Friday court filing is Manafort's longtime Russia/Ukraine business partner, Konstantin Kilimnik. Read the rest

Did Paul Manafort reach out to Russia to ask for help? Did Donald Trump offer Mike Flynn a pardon?

Special counsel Robert Mueller has dozens of questions for President Donald Trump about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and obstruction of the investigation led by Mueller.

They include questions on “any efforts made to reach out to Mr. Flynn about seeking immunity or possible pardon.”

Another question will make headlines tonight: “What knowledge did you have of any outreach by your campaign, including by Paul Manafort, to Russia about potential assistance to the campaign?” As the Times notes, “No such outreach has been revealed publicly.” Read the rest

President Donald Trump's lawyers want him to refuse to be interviewed by Robert Mueller in the ongoing investigation involving Russia and other possible areas of criminal activity. He may refuse, but the investigation isn't going away. Read the rest

Trump has said that he is "looking forward" to giving a statement to special investigator "under oath" -- but talking to smart people under oath requires the kind of sustained, detail-oriented focus that our barely literate president is notoriously bad at.
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The West Wing confrontation marks the first time Mr. Trump is known to have tried to fire the special counsel. Mr. Mueller learned about the episode in recent months as his investigators interviewed current and former senior White House officials in his inquiry into whether the president obstructed justice.

Amid the first wave of news media reports that Mr. Mueller was examining a possible obstruction case, the president began to argue that Mr. Mueller had three conflicts of interest that disqualified him from overseeing the investigation, two of the people said.

The man who mastered Trump here is Donald F. McGahn II. There seems to be a knack for manipulating Trump, through sycophancy or triggering his fear of looking stupid. Some people just never get close -- GOP politicians -- but military men and rock guitarists instinctively have his number. Read the rest

President Donald Trump “repeatedly urged senior Senate Republicans, including the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to end the panel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election” earlier this year, according to a New York Times report citing “a half dozen lawmakers and aides.”
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CNN reports that then-Candidate Donald Trump 'did not dismiss the idea of arranging a meeting with Russia's president when it was suggested in a meeting with his campaign foreign policy advisers last year.' Read the rest

About an hour after Spicer's texts, he replied to a polite email I had sent earlier, seeking comment:

Per my text:

Please refrain from sending me unsolicited texts and emails

Should you not do so I will contact the appropriate legal authorities to address your harassment

Thanks

Sean M Spicer

Context: Spicer's a famously fastidious note-taker and it appears White House investigator Robert Mueller wants a peek.

Spicer is exactly what he appears to be: a blathering thug from whom threats and lies flow like sweat. The desire for there to be something under this, some warmer more human creature behind the mask, is just another disease of that liberal center everyone keeps warning you about. Read the rest

Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his team of investigators are looking into whether former Trump cabinet member Mike Flynn may have been part of an effort to get a hold of Hillary Clinton’s emails, hacked by Russia.
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Special counsel Robert Mueller is using at least two grand juries, one in VA and one in D.C., to investigate possible coordination between the presidential campaign of Donald Trump and Russia, USA Today reports, citing a lawyer involved in the case.
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